The new giant company, which became the country's sixth largest financial institution, was acquired in March 1986 by the tobacco conglomerate Imasco.
[1] The founding shareholders were James Alexander Lougheed, Harry Symons, William Roper Hull, John Lineham, Alfred B.
Historian Philip Smith wrote that, "having procured their charter, those early westerners do not seem to have done much with it, since references to it through the years in the Huron & Erie's records describe it as 'largely inactive.'
In 1899, seven officers of the Huron and Erie Savings and Loan Society of London, Ontario paid a combined $115,000 to acquire the General Trust Corporation of Canada.
[8] Shortly after the Canada Trust–Canada Permanent merger, on 24 March 1986, the Montreal-based tobacco company Imasco made a USD 1.43 billion offer to take Genstar over.
[9] The offer received considerable criticism, and in April the cross-party finance committee of the House of Commons voted unanimously to block the takeover.
As part of the purchase, British American would dispose of Imasco's three non-tobacco businesses: CT Financial Services, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Genstar Development.
In January 2000, Toronto-Dominion shareholders voted to approve the acquisition, which would see TD pay $67 per share for Imasco's 98.2 per cent of CT, worth CAD 7.8 billion.
On 1 February 2000, finance minister Paul Martin approved the purchase, on the condition that Toronto-Dominion sell off CT's MasterCard business.